Beyoncé's Surprise ITunes Album Is Selling Like Crazy

Claiming she was done with traditional album release, Beyoncé surprised fans by secretly launching a new album last week. The self-titled "visual album" has done well so far, proving the smarts of Beyoncé and her team. Billboard says it was well past 550,000 downloads on Saturday night and was predicted to pass 600,000 units on Sunday.

Her last album, "4" in 2011, hit 310,000 sales on its launch, and the previous record for her album's first sales was 541,000 units in 2006 with "B'Day." This means the new eponymous album may set a personal record for the singer.

The success of the new record is likely to be closely watched by the rest of the disrupt-ready music industry, particularly in an era where digital music is dramatically changing the business landscape, and some statistics hint that the era of the download may be ending in favor of streaming content. Beyoncé's success would seem to challenge this last thesis.

Apple's been in touch with Fast Company by email to say that Beyoncé's album is a record-setter on iTunes. The album has shattered the digital music store's records with 828,773 copies sold in only three days. This means the record claimed the title of best first week album sales. It's also number one in 104 countries by Apple's count.